the it channel edge*
The conversation around mental health is still not normalised, as we combat shame, virtue signalling and necessity.
The radiant, hope-filled summer of 2019 was an exercise in forebearance for me and those closest to me. Walking away from Lenovo with all it’s promise of career improvement, LTAs and reputation building, was about as brave a thing as I’ve ever taken on. The decision was made and executed over a Sunday G&T in a friend’s garden in the evening and the email dropped 6am the following day. No package, no NDA, no fuss, I’m out.
Acutely aware of the signs of poor mental health, I immersed myself in family, travel, golf and rather inevitably, walking the dog. One, two, three months flew by and in the early Autumn I experienced an epiphany. After weeks and months of ‘no inbox’, I sufficiently ground down the gears to the point where it was peaceful again.
A local dog walk features an east facing brow of a hill and if you like your anecdotes insufferably saccharine, then picture a 48yo man, AirPods firmly in, absorbing every lilt and timber of Bruce Springsteen’s Western Stars, as the sun emerges on a clear, chilly morning. I remember the undeniable sense of returning, of being capable and giving, of being impossibly ready. That moment, which still raises a hair or two, is the core energy of everything I have achieved since and is still imbued within Channel Edge today.
12th November 2019, I registered “Channel Edge Limited” at Companies House, dragged in a dear friend and embarrassingly over-qualified finance dude to be fractional FD and made plans to create a channel business like no other. Focus on the automation of the MDF process via a free to use app and build a £1m business in 3-5 years. The million pound business bit took exactly 3.
Ahem. COVID.
If you can’t pivot when you’re a one man band with no real revenues or commitments to suppliers or answering to investors, then when can you?! The pandemic was biting and with that a seismic shift in channel engagement to online. An opportunity that could not, and was not, ignored. The first three years of Channel Edge can be summed up as pivot, deliver, survive, grow… and we did.
The old adage about most businesses failing inside the first three years may or may not be true, however, when midnight on 12th November 2022 ticked along I knew that all the manoeuvring, punishing hours, going without and delivering to the highest standard at almost no matter the cost, paid off. We’d done it, we’d attracted an impressive client list and we were ready to scale. Just the next big risk assessment, potential return and right person to find.
The transition from “Matt Ruskin t/a Channel Edge” to Channel Edge as we know it today was initiated on that three year anniversary. It was clear we had traction, we had clients and we had the sure footing of a business ready to scale into the opportunity in front of us. Our first action was to hire somebody who actually knows how to run a marketing and events business, on an explicit plan to coach into a Managing Director inside two years. A risky move, plump with failure points and wholly contingent on any number of factors aligning. Align they did, and now we have a Channel Edge in which outside of stakeholders and executives in legacy clients, I am “operationally redundant”, and what I mean by that is, the eilte team we have has built Channel Edge and carried its reputation forward.
Channel Edge today is a leading channel business, recognised at the CRN Awards 2025 as Channel Supplier of the Year (Support), continues to grow in terms of revenue, profit and margin every year since incorporation, attracting top industry talent, counting Dell Technologies, TD SYNNEX, Panasonic TOUGHBOOK, boxxe and Sophos in its client list and channel network, relentlessly pushing the conventions of in-person and digital engagement and building a brand that transcends the ‘what’ by applying a codified culture to everything we do.
Adam Boddy, Managing Director @ Channel Edge “Matt supported me through one of the most significant personal and professional transitions of my life. His mentoring was thoughtful, generous and grounding. While he jokes about being ‘operationally redundant’, his experience, perspective and calm guidance as CEO remain invaluable, continuing to shape my thinking and decisions today.”
Numbers matter. Wellbeing is critical with my ambition to build a business that I want to work for, the art is in the balance as improving, supporting and maintaining wellbeing and experience for all who engage with your business will, in all likelihood, result in the numbers you want. Rest Well, Stay Calm.
*”The IT” was dropped, a good example of don’t over-engineer it